Men's Lacrosse: Virginia, Starsia move on after difficult month

There’s no way to truly know how difficult this month has been for Dom Starsia, but the exhaustion has been pretty clear in his voice.

Since the May 3 news broke that UVa women’s player Yeardley Love was found dead in her apartment and the subsequent arrest on first-degree murder charges of UVa men’s player George Huguely, Starsia has had to deal with an unimaginable amount of emotion and scrutiny with his program. On top of that, his ailing father passed away May 7, after a long battle with cancer. He had moved in with Starsia earlier this year, and the coach had been spending most mornings with his father all spring.

So it was no surprise when Starsia took an extended pause before issuing a statement in the postgame press conference Saturday night after the Cavaliers 14-13 loss to Duke. It was hard to tell where exactly he was going with the statement, but it was obvious he was letting out a lot of emotion that had been building up over these pressure-packed four weeks.

“I don't know where to begin," he said. "So many of you know me, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you this doesn’t happen if not for my family and assistants Marc Van Arsdale and John Walker picking up so much of the load for me this spring when I wasn’t able to handle myself on a daily basis. These kids, I’m really proud of this team. The fact that we played hard and came back when we had the chance to roll over, I wouldn’t have expected anything less. The final score tonight might be the least important part of what transpired here throughout the spring, truly.

“I love what I do. These young men, the practices, the games, the bus trips — I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to do this, grateful that I have the opportunity to work with these guys and the other guys in the locker room that are upset the final result is not what we were looking for. The qualities we showed on the lacrosse field today reflect who these guys are and the kinds of things that carried us throughout the spring.”

Virginia held a 7-5 halftime lead in Saturday’s NCAA Semifinal, but fell victim to an overwhelming seven-goal Duke run that gave the Devils a 12-8 lead with 12:11 left in the game. Duke’s lead looked safe at that point, but the Cavs went on a 5-1 run over the next 11 minutes to tie the score 11-11 on a Brian Carroll goal with 1:21 remaining.

That set up the Ned Crotty to Max Quinzani goal with 12 seconds remaining, which ultimately gave Duke the win when Virginia went offsides with eight seconds left.

It was a crazy quarter — 10 combined goals is the second-most in an NCAA Semifinal — and it clearly ripped the hearts out of the Cavaliers players, who were absolutely overcome with emotion in the locker room after the game.

With about 10 minutes left in the game, Yeardley Love's sister Lexie appeared on the JumboTron at M&T Bank Stadium, providing all the Virginia players yet another reminder of the tragedy.

“It’s definitely been difficult this last month,” said sophomore attackman Steele Stanwick. “We’ve been leaning on each other, supporting each other, to take our minds off everything that’s happened. I’m not going to lie, it’s been difficult. But I really am proud of the team. We could have rolled over, and I’m sure a lot of people thought we were going to. I think it just shows a lot of character for our team and the kind of people this team is made up of.”

The common theme of both the Virginia men’s and women’s teams this month has been the importance of extending the season and staying together. Lacrosse practices and training and travel and games have been therapeutic, keeping their minds off the tragedy that occurred May 3.

Huguely’s trial is set to begin in two weeks, so while the players might disperse for the summer, they won’t be able to get away from this sad story for quite some time. Nor will Starsia, who under normal circumstances would immediately immerse himself in summer recruiting following the season.

So what’s next for Starsia?

“I have so many people to thank; I feel like I have so much to do personally,” he said. “I’m certainly in a little different place than I’d be in other years at the end of a different season. I can’t say for sure. A lot of people helped me stand up and get through all this; I owe them an awful lot. So I probably need to just figure that out a little bit before I just jump into recruiting again, which is what we always do.”